Global Impact
UNT makes a world of difference with internationally renowned experts conducting leading edge, global minded research. Whether it’s developing bioproducts and creating net-zero energy technologies to tread lightly on the earth or fighting devastating diseases such as Alzheimer’s, UNT is solving world problems to support a healthy population and renewable resources.
Research Around the World
UNT’s research extends around the world, with field stations as close as a neighboring lake and as far away as the sub-Arctic region of Alaska and the sub-Antarctic region of Chile in the Cape Horn Field Station — the world’s first field research facility dedicated to environmental philosophy, science and policy. UNT has one National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center and two I/UCRC sites.
Chile
Through a nationally recognized program in environmental philosophy, UNT partners with the Chilean government and academic institutions to protect and support the ecologically fragile Cape Horn reserve. Read more »
- UNT has the world’s first graduate program in environmental philosophy and the world’s first field station in environmental philosophy, science and policy at Cape Horn, Chile
China
Through the Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, UNT is partnering with Future House Real Estate Co. Ltd., a research institution in Beijing, to research and promote green building technologies while bringing together U.S. and Chinese partners from industry and academia to conduct research in the area of zero energy.
- UNT’s Zero Energy Laboratory is a living and working lab designed to test emerging, sustainable technologies and materials to achieve net-zero energy consumption. It’s Texas’ only such facility testing these technologies and systems.
Costa Rica
UNT’s College of Merchandising, Hospitality and Tourism partners with CATIE (The Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center) in Costa Rica to offer a joint degree program in international sustainable tourism. The master’s program is the first of its kind in the U.S. Read more »
Pacific Islands
UNT’s College of Information is training future librarians in the Pacific islands in its online master’s degree program in library and information science. The program, called LEAP: Library Education for the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific, is funded by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program. Read more »
Thailand
UNT has hosted two-way faculty exchanges between Mahidol University and UNT’s colleges of Music and Business. There are strong, evolving partnerships in mathematics and science education between universities in Thailand and UNT’s College of Education. The University also has strong ties to alumni in Thailand, where there are more than 1,000 former UNT students, an active alumni network and a UNT international recruiting office.
Mexico
With initiatives like The Heart of Mexico, UNT students and faculty are bringing new meaning and value to global education. The project teamed UNT journalism students with Universidad Autonoma del Estado de México students to produce multimedia stories that show how ordinary people live in central Mexico and to promote cultural exchanges. Read more »
Spotlight on Global Research
Cold-formed steel in construction
Cheng Yu, associate professor and coordinator of UNT’s construction engineering technology program, leads the College of Engineering’s role in the international Cold-Formed Steel Research Consortium. The consortium is a group of leading researchers that provides the world’s most comprehensive research on cold-formed steel structures. Cold-formed steel is an economical and recyclable building and equipment material. Yu, a recipient of the NSF Faculty Early Career Development Award, researches uses of and effects to cold-formed steel structures
Moving goods
Ila Manuj, associate professor of logistics, earned a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship by the European Commission for a 16-month project to study supply chain complexity in Austria. Her research project aims to better understand, define and measure complexity in a supply chain. Read more »
Media coverage of Drug Wars
To conduct research on media coverage of the 2007-2011 drug cartel wars in Mexico’s border city of Ciudad Juarez, Tracy Everbach, associate professor of journalism, interviewed journalists in Ciudad Juarez and El Paso on the Texas-Mexico border, and San Diego and its Mexican border city of Tijuana. She was accompanied by Samantha Guzman, a master's student who served as a translator and photographer. Read more »
Flash flood survival
Flash floods are considered to be one of the most dangerous weather-related threats in the world, claiming approximately 20,000 lives every year in underdeveloped as well as developed nations, yet there is no available technology that provides adequate forewarning, and virtually no studies on flash flood response within developing countries such as India. Funded by a National Science Foundation Rapid Response Research (NSF RAPID) grant award, Sudha Arlikatti, associate professor of public administration with expertise in emergency management; she spent weeks conducting field research in India to assess flood disaster preparedness and response strategies that affect survival. Read more »